Kato Unitram

[gerryo]

I have finally roughly wired up my Unitram section, and find that it works very nicely.

 

With one exception. My Kato Portram is running with the center hinge practically dragging on the track. I've looked it over very carefully and can find nothing out of place, or broken, which would cause this.

 

Is this the normal way a Kato Tram works? Or is there something that I am missing? It sure seems like an odd way to build something. Why go to so much trouble to build something perfect and then make it look weird by the way it runs?

 

gerryo

[VJM]

That's normal on the first series of Kato Trams.  Nothing broken, just a minor design issue.  Later versions of the tram kind of fixed this.  You can partially fix this by trimming and putting a spring in under the connection piece at the top of the tram.  A little bit difficult to explain; I think there was a thread about this a couple of years ago on this forum somewhere.

[cteno4]

Gerryo,

 

Here is the thread on the saggy middle issue with some early kato portrams.

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/3335-saggy-bottom-trolley/?hl=%2Bkato+%2Bportram

 

Unfortunately the kato portram is an extremely fiddly mechanism due to the full interior and the motors housed down in the bogies. There are a few threads on the forum showing pictures of disassembly of them to help out as well.

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/10038-kato-tram-disassembly/

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/2828-kato-portram-disassembly-pictures/?hl=%2Bportram+%2Bpictures

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/2812-portram-which-isnt-run/

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[gerryo]

Thanx for the links, guys

 

Now to find a spring.

 

gerryo